Believe it or not, it takes quite a bit of skill to code games at the level Zynga can. Blame the execs and game designers for their lack of originality, not the devs.

I was being courted by them a few months ago. They contacted me about a week before the stock fraud stories came out. I had no interest whatsoever in leaving my current kush job to go work for a company with a tainted reputation, legal trouble at the highest levels and notorious for demanding, but not paying, OT. And they tried to sell it all as a dream job making video games. Maybe I would have gone for that at 22, but not now.

Silicon Avatar wrote on Aug 24, 2012, 18:30:How top of a talent do you need to be in order to make crap like Farmville?

You're missing the point. They made a fortune from crap like Farmville - that takes talent. Their talent clearly isn't in making games, it is in making money from shit games and this is what they're losing.

Never forget www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96024-Zynga-CEO-Admits-to-Being-a-Scammer

Silicon Avatar wrote on Aug 24, 2012, 18:30:How top of a talent do you need to be in order to make crap like Farmville?

You're missing the point. They made a fortune from crap like Farmville - that takes talent. Their talent clearly isn't in making games, it is in making money from shit games and this is what they're losing.

I suspect this newer business model of giving people the game for free and then charging as much as 99 bucks for in game items is due to die thanks to the greed of these companies. I bought all 3 Angry Birds for 99 cents and have had countless hours of fun. Had they stuck to giving you lots of in game items for an occasional buck then I would not mind at all. Look at games like My Town 2. I refuse to even install any of these games with ridiculous pricing anymore.